2020

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma, 2019)

Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006)

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (Vladimir Menshov, 1980) (available on YouTube from MosFilm, in 2 parts, here: Part 1, Part 2)

Hélas pour moi (Jean-luc Godard, 1993)

Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)

A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick, 2019)

Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa, 2019)

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down (Pedro Almodóvar, 1990)

Wormwood (Errol Morris, 2017)

Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003)

Primer (Shane Carruth, 2004)

The Death of Stalin (Armando Iannucci, 2017)
That Most Important Thing: Love (Andrzej Żuławski, 1975)
Wheel of Time (Werner Herzog, 2003)
Tale of Tales (Yuri Norstein, 1979)
High Life (Claire Denis, 2018)
Rembrandt's J'Accuse (Peter Greenaway, 2008)
The Rite (Ingmar Bergman, 1969)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax,  2012)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)

2019

My annual chronicle of my own year in cinema.

This isn't so much of a ranked list as a list in three tiers:
A single film that joins the top tier of masterpieces that reveal deep truths about the physical and metaphysical world; a large number of well-crafted films that tell large truths in important ways; and a set of disappointments that deserved better from their makers.

My only two specific notes about this year are about Ordet, which overpowered me, and about Kommunisten, which inspired me.

I don't think I would have been ready to see Ordet until 2019, at least not through the eyes that it deserves. I'm very thankful that I waited to see it until I was a person who carries faith.

I wrote about Kommunisten, briefly, for Mubi's Images of the Decade.

2019:
Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)
Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)*
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
Workers, Peasants (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 2001)
Microhabitat (Jeon Go-woon, 2017)
Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar, 2019)
Bao (Domee Shi, 2018)
My 20th Century (Ildikó Enyedi, 1988)
Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, 1992)
Vagabond (Agnès Varda, 1985)
White Material (Claire Denis, 2009)
The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019)
Oedipus Rex (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967)
The Death of Empedocles (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, 1987)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig, 2005)
The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018)
Fortini/Cani (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, 1976)
So Long, My Son (Wang Xiaoshuai, 2019)
The Fighter (David O. Russell, 2010)
Machorka-Muff (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, 1963)
Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino, 2018)
L'enfant secret (Philippe Garrel, 1979)
BRIDGIT (Charlotte Prodger, 2016)
Flores (Jorge Jácome, 2017)
Brave (Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell, 2012)
Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019)
Suicide Squad (David Ayer, 2016)
Slack Bay (Bruno Dumont, 2016)
The Edge of the Knife (Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown, 2018) [abandoned at 48 minutes]
Me the Terrible (Josephine Decker, 2012)
Aquaman (James Wan, 2018)
The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 1980)
Doctor Chance (F.J. Ossang, 1997) [abandoned at 34 min]

* Revisited, and still terrific

2018

Drake - Nice for What (Karena Evans, 2018)
Hommage à Jean-Marie Straub (Valérie Massadian, 2018)
The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard, 2018)
(Untitled) (Bajir Cannon, 2018)
The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)
Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018)
Diamantino (Gabriel Abrantes & Daniel Schmidt, 2018)
Die Hard 2 (Renny Harlin, 1990)
Milford Graves Full Mantis (Jake Meginsky w/ Neil Young, 2018)
Drake - God's Plan (Karena Evans, 2018)

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (Declan Lowney, 2013)
Tomb Raider (Roar Uthaug, 2018)
Fantastic Four (Josh Trank, 2015)

2017

Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
A nos amours (Maurice Pialat, 1983)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Jake Kasdan, 2017)
The Death of Louis XIV (Albert Serra, 2016)
HAIM - Right Now (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)
HAIM - Want You Back (Jake Schreier, 2017)
Orange Light (Ryland Walker Knight, 2016)
Ghost Comb. (Ryland Walker Knight, 2016)
Seven Years Nine Months (Ryland Walker Knight, 2015)
Spielberg (Susan Lacy, 2017)
Inferno (Ron Howard, 2016)
Independence Day: Resurgence (Roland Emmerich, 2016)
Gunpowder (J Blakeson, 2017)
Mulan (Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, 1998)
Kong: Skull Island (Jordan Vogt-Roberts, 2017)
Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 1968)

2015

Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
À propos de Venise (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)

Inside Out (Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen, 2015)
Dialogue d’ombres (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1954 – 2013)
Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955)
Le Camps de la mort (1945)
La Madre (Jean-Marie Straub, 2012)
Straight (Ai Wei Wei, 2015)
Lava (James Ford Murphy, 2014)

The Martian (Ridley Scott, 2015)
Junun (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2015)
Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle, 1987)
Schakale und Araber (Jean-Marie Straub, 2011)

Henchman Glance (Chris Marker, 2010)
An Education (Lone Scherfig, 2009)
Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015)

2016

The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)

Carol (Todd Haynes, 2014)

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967)

Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)

Julieta (Pedro Almodovar, 2016)

Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) The Present (Jacob Frey, 2014)

In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman, 2015)
Hypernormalisation (Adam Curtis, 2016)
Hit 2 Pass (Kurt Walker, 2014)

Blue (Derek Jarman, 1993)
Squirrel take GoPro and gives best POV EVER!!! (2016)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams, 2015)

Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One (Miguel Gomes, 2015)
The Bridge of Sighs (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Friends Dancing to Bowie (Keith Uhlich, 2016)
For Ever Mozart (Jean-Luc Godard, 1996)

Rosehill (Brigitta Wagner, 2015)

A Cinematic Year (2014)

Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Beyoncé (feat. Jay-Z) "Drunk in Love" Unofficial Emoji Video (Jesse Hill, 2014)
Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)
Les années 80 (Chantal Akerman, 1983)
Horse Money (Pedro Costa, 2014)
Camera falls from airplane and lands in pig pen--MUST WATCH END!! (Mia Munselle, 2014)
Valparaiso (Joris Ivens, 1963)
À bientôt, j'espère (Chris Marker & Mario Marret, 1968)
The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921)
Three Cheers for the Whale (Chris Marker & Mario Ruspoli, 1972)
A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)
Portrait of Lotte - 0 to 14 years in 4 min. (The Original) (Frans Hofmeester, 2014)
Film for Untitled Viewer (Joseph Bernard, 1983)
The Terrorizer (Edward Yang, 1986)
Life of Riley (Alain Resnais, 2013)
Un jour Pina a demandé (Chantal Akerman, 1983)
A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1989)
Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
Apple - iPad Air - TV Ad - Your Verse (2013)
Sherlock Jr (Buster Keaton, 1924)
The Three Ages (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 1923)
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)
The Football Incident (Une histoire de ballon: le lycée no. 31 à Pekin) [from How Yukong Moved the Mountains] (Joris Ivens & Marceline Loridan-Ivens, 1976)
Professor Tsien [from How Yukong Moved the Mountains] (Joris Ivens & Marceline Loridan-Ivens, 1976)
Venezia 70 Future Reloaded - Jean Marie Straub (Jean Marie Straub, 2013)
Colorfilm (Standish Lawder, 1971)
Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 1947)
Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite, 2013)
Por primera vez (Octavio Cortazar, 1967)
color test #2 (no worries) (Phil Coldiron, 2014)
color test #3 (sisters) (Phil Coldiron, 2014)
Khan Khanne (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Rehearsal at the Peking Opera [from How Yukong Moved the Mountains] (Joris Ivens & Marceline Loridan-Ivens, 1976)
21 Jump Street (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 2012)
color test #1 (full of fire) (Phil Coldiron, 2014)
Divergent (Neil Burger, 2014)
Traditional Handicrafts [from How Yukong Moved the Mountains] (Joris Ivens & Marceline Loridan-Ivens, 1976) 
The Restless Breed (Allan Dwan, 1957)
The Spanish Main (Frank Borzage, 1945)
Land Ho! (Aaron Katz & Martha Stephens, 2014)
Venezia 70 Future Reloaded - Yorgos Lanthimos (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2013)
HELL ORBS "Arschersetzer" feat. KC Green
Turen til Squashland (Lars Trier, 1967)
Spark: A Burning Man Story (Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter, 2013)

2013

I gave up the cinema in 2013, despite all contrary appearances. I don't have much to publicly say about this change of commitment that isn't buried beneath my forthcoming contribution to the Mubi year-end poll, but I do still without reservation present a non-chronological list of my year in cinema, in rough order of preference.

My definitions of cinema continue to change, and this year I felt more connected to short-form and internet content than ever before, and less inclined to consider television as 'cinema' except where the work in question was originally otherwise 'cinematic' according to my definitional instincts.

May this list offer you hints and gifts and reflections for your own journey through the world, and through the world of moving images.


[Untitled] (David McDougall, 2010)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925)
The Three Disasters (Jean-Luc Godard, 2013)
From Greece (Peter Nestler, 1966)
A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009)
Lola (Jacques Demy, 1961)
Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (Benjamin Christensen, 1922; original score by Demdike Stare, 2013)
The Blackbird (Tod Browning, 1926)
Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch, 1946)
Up The Danube (Peter Nestler & Zsóka Nestler, 1981)
d kat (Adam Cook, 2013)
Chile Film (Peter Nestler & Zsóka Nestler, [1974])
he didn't call his painting anything (Alexandre Galmard, 2013)
Joan of Paris (Robert Stevenson, 1942)
Black Roots (Lionel Rogosin, 1970)
Passage to Marseille (Michael Curtiz, 1944)
Die Judengasse (Peter Nestler, 1988)
How to Make Glass Manually (Peter Nestler & Zsóka Nestler, 1970)
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Present (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, 2013)
Ödenwaldstetten (Peter Nestler, 1964)
Semi-Auto Colours (Isiah Medina, 2010)
Cassini Mission (Chris Abbas, 2012)
The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years Without Images (Eric Baudelaire, 2011)
Comrade X (King Vidor, 1940)
Mouse vs. Cookie (Pavel Golovkov, 2013)
Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
Joe Biden - Return of the Mack ('DangerGuerrero', 2013)
Pachamama - Our Land (Peter Nestler, 1995)
Ellie Lumme (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, 2013)
Viva Zapata! (Elia Kazan, 1952)
Louis C.K.: Oh My God (Louis C.K., 2013)
Why bring a child into this world? (Unilever, 2013)
Bhowani Junction (George Cukor, 1956)
(∃u) [u ≤ f and u ≤ m] (Isiah Medina, 2013)
My Brother's Wedding (Charles Burnett, 1983)
Declaration of War (Dustin Guy Defa, 2013)
Venezia 70 Future Reloaded - Apitchapong Weerasethakul (Apitchapong Weerasethakul, 2013)
everything is embarrassing (Kurt Walker, 2013)
Forever Young (Adam Cook, 2013)

ทรูมูฟ เอช " การให้ คือการสื่อสารที่ดีที่สุด " TrueMove H : Giving (2013) 

Venezia 70 Future Reloaded - Wang Bing (Wang Bing, 2013) 

Venezia 70 Future Reloaded - Jia Zhang-ke (Jia Zhang-ke, 2013)
Empire (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
[Thai Life Insurance commercial] (2010?)
[Thai Leukemia commercial] (2010?)
How easy it is to forget... (2012)
That Hamilton Woman (Alexander Korda, 1941)
The Loves of Pharaoh (Ernst Lubitsch, 1922)
Socrates (Roberto Rossellini, 1971)
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, 2013)
Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008)
The Glass Slipper (Jarrod Whaley, 2011)
The Man Phoning Mum (John Smith, 2011)
Fear (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)
Happy Anniversary (Jean-Claude Carrière & Pierre Étaix, 1962)
The Circle (Frank Borzage, 1925)
Hackney Marshes (TV version) (John Smith, 1978)
The Girl Chewing Gum (John Smith, 1976)
Incendiary Cinema (Ken Jacobs, 2005)
The Art of Vision (Stan Brakhage, 1965)
Venezia 70 Future Reloaded - Celina Murga (Celina Murga, 2013)
Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012)
Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh, 2012)
Dolce&Gabbana The One: "Street of Dreams" (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Rupture (Pierre Étaix, 1961)
Iron Man 3 (Shane Black, 2013)
Poppy Fields Forever (John Warren, 2012)
Black Gold (Phil Karlson, 1947)
Life Is But A Dream (Ed Burke & Beyoncé Knowles, 2013)
The Sixth Year, Episode 3 (Alex Ross Perry, 2013)
B. waiting outside of a school (Isiah Medina, 2013)
Venezia 70 Future Reloaded - Pablo Larraín (Pablo Larraín, 2013)
Illegible Object, Omni-Ordering Eye (Venkatesh Rao, 2013)
Venezia 70 Future Reloaded - Isabel Coixet (Isabel Coixet, 2013)
Hell Is Other People (Jarrod Whaley, 2009)
My last minute (Leos Carax, 2006)
Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010)
Phil Spector (David Mamet, 2013)
The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
Wrath of the Titans (Jonathan Liebesman, 2012)

2012: A Year in Cinema

L'Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close (Bertrand Bonello, 2011)
Napoléon vu par Abel Gance (Abel Gance, 1927)
The Rising of the Moon (John Ford, 1957)
Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
Trás-os-Montes (Margarida Cordeiro & Antonio Reis, 1976)
Leonard Cohen - The Partisan - Le partisan - Original 1969 - French TV (Leonard Cohen, 1969)
Ana (Margarida Cordeiro & Antonio Reis, 1984)
Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)
Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012)
Titanic 3D (James Cameron, 1997/2012)
Jeonju Digital Project 2012, Raya Martin Message (Raya Martin, 2012)
The Return (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2011)
The Enjoyment of Reading (Lost and Found) (David Gatten, 2001)
The Great Art of Knowing (David Gatten, 2004)
August and After (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2012)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt, 2011)
The Devil, Probably (Robert Bresson, 1977)
Secret History of the Dividing Line (David Gatten, 2002)
Pastourelle (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2010)
Mera Naam Joker / My Name is Joker (Raj Kapoor, 1970)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel, 2012)
Apocalypse Now (Jessie Darling, 2012)
Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, or, The Doctrine of Handy-Works Applied to the Art of Printing (David Gatten, 2004)
Somebody Up There Likes Me (Bob Byington, 2012)
Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004)
A Dog's Life (Charles Chaplin, 1918)
The North Star (Lewis Milestone, 1943)
Tristana (Luis Buñuel, 1970)
Ape (Joel Potrykus, 2012)
Mad Detective (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai, 2007)
Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011)
Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987)
So Sure of Nowhere Buying Times to Come (David Gatten, 2010)
Film for Invisible Ink, Case No. 323: Once Upon a Time in the West (David Gatten, 2010)
How to Conduct a Love Affair (David Gatten, 2007)
The Matter Propounded, Of Its Possibility or Impossibility, Treated in Four Parts (David Gatten, 2011)
The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
Hitler's Madman (Douglas Sirk, 1943)
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (Matthew Akers & Jeff Dupre, 2012)
Margaret (Extended Cut) (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011 / 2012)
Tony Scott (Phil Coldiron, 2012)
Lonely Are the Brave (David Miller, 1962)
Dodsworth (William Wyler, 1936)
Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo, 2011)
Human Desire (Fritz Lang, 1954)
The Wild Child (François Truffaut, 1970)
We Won't Grow Old Together (Maurice Pialat, 1972)
D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté, 1950)
Beggars of Life (William A. Wellman, 1928)
Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme, 1993)
The Case of the Grinning Cat (Chris Marker, 2004)
Mudar de Vida (Paulo Rocha, 1966) 
Indiscretion of an American Wife (Vittorio De Sica, 1953)
Love Affair (Leo McCarey, 1939)
Rembrandt's J'Accuse (Peter Greenaway, 2008)
The Spanish Earth (Joris Ivens, 1937)
Run of the Arrow (Samuel Fuller, 1957)
Halftime in America (David Gordon Green, 2012)
View from an Engine Front - Barnstaple (1898) (1898)
The Exile (Max Ophuls, 1947)
Robbery (Oliver Ressler, 2012)
Wind Across the Everglades (Nicholas Ray, 1958)
An Owl Is An Owl (Chris Marker, 1990)
Cat Listening to Music (Chris Marker, 1990)
Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, 2012)
The Immigrant (Charles Chaplin, 1917)
Zoo Piece (Chris Marker, 1990)
Remembrance of Things to Come (Chris Marker & Yannick Bellon, 2003)
Jaime (Margarida Cordeiro & Antonio Reis, 1974)
The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (Chuck Jones, 1965)
Slon Tango (Chris Marker, 1993)
Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu, 2012)
Bullfight in Okinawa (Chris Marker, 1992)
Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies (Arne Glimcher, 2008)
Le Jour se lève (Marcel Carné, 1939)
Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000)
Daisies (Věra Chytilová, 1966)
MacGruber (Jorma Taccone, 2010)
Extinction Number Six (Rachel Thompson, 2011) [trailer]
The Key (Michael Curtiz, 1934)
Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981)
Copia imperfecta (José Luis Torres Leiva, 2012)
In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt's Unfinished Revolution (Jon Alpert & Matthew O'Neill, 2011)
Conte de printemps (Dani Abo Louh & Mohamad Omrad, 2011)
Homs: City Under Siege (anonymous/CNN, 2012)
Dots (Norman McLaren, 1940)
Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997)
Valerie and her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jireš, 1970)
The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
Alice (Jan Švankmajer, 1988)
Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl, 2012)
Junkopia (Chris Marker, 1981)
Five Million Years to Earth (Roy Ward Baker, 1967)
La femme publique (Andrzej Żuławski, 1984)
Logan's Run (Michael Anderson, 1976)
Montreal in the 60's (Jimmy Deschênes, 2009)
Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas, 2012)
Reality (Matteo Garrone, 2012)
The Mask of Dimitrios (Jean Negulesco, 1944)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra, 1933)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991)
The Flame and the Arrow (Jacques Tourneur, 1950)
Rosa de Areia (Margarida Cordeiro & Antonio Reis, 1989)
We Eat the Fruit of the Trees of Paradise (Věra Chytilová, 1970)
Septien (Michael Tully, 2011)
View From An Engine Front - Ilfracombe (1898)
Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012)
Room in Rome (Julio Medem, 2010)
Faster (George Tillman, Jr, 2010)
Sun Don't Shine (Amy Seimetz, 2012)
Almanac of Fall (Béla Tarr, 1984)

2011: A Year in Cinema

Continuing the tradition, what follows is a list of films seen for the first time in 2011, or revisited and reconsidered, in rough order of preference. I also wrote some little things for year-end roundups at Vinyl Is Heavy and for the Mubi Notebook. I've got some other thoughts, but not sure they'll drift their way into print in the immediate... for now, let's just say these top 5 (and maybe 6) will be influencing me for a long, long time.

Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 1949)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry, 2011)
This Is Not a Film (Mojtaba Mirtahmasb & Jafar Panahi, 2010)
Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011)
Passeio com Johnny Guitar (João César Monteiro, 1996)
A King in New York (Charles Chaplin, 1957)
The Pinochet Case (Patricio Guzmán, 2001)
Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark (Al Jazeera documentary, 2011)
Eadward Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Thom Andersen, 1974)
The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography (William E. Jones, 1998)
The Exiles (Kent Mackenzie, 1961)
The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987)
Ars Colonia (Raya Martin, 2011)
Big (Penny Marshall, 1988)
Salvador Allende (Patricio Guzmán, 2004)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010)
Dead Island: Official Announcement Trailer
Palestinian Chicken episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2011)
A Village Fading Away (Patricio Guzmán, 1995)
Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard, 2010)
The Angel Wore Red (Nunnally Johnson, 1960)
Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003)
The Firm (Sydney Pollack, 1993)
Mister Softee episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2011)
The King's Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010)
"Hang With Me" (Max Vitali, 2010)
Get Out of the Car (Thom Andersen, 2010)
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010)
History Lessons (Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, 1972)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Nimoy, 1986)
Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944)
The Day He Arrives (Hong Sang-soo, 2011)
The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzky, 2011)
Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Martin Scorcese, 2011)
Tauw (Ousmane Sembene, 1970)
The Ace of Hearts (Wallace Worsley, 1921)
Bi-Sexual episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2011)
Car Periscope episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2011)
Almayer's Folly (Chantal Akerman, 2011)
Three on a Couch (Jerry Lewis, 1966)
Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)
The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev, 2011)
The Immortal Story (Orson Welles, 1968)
Bhopali (Max Carlson, 2011)
Goodbye, Michael episode of "The Office" (2011)
Bobby Fischer Against the World (Liz Garbus, 2011)
Cops (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 1922)
Cabs Are Here! episode of "Jersey Shore" (2011)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
Ministry of Fear (Fritz Lang, 1944)
The Trip [theatrical version] (Michael Winterbottom, 2010)
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
The Scarecrow (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 1920)
The Aristocrat (Greg Croteau, 2010)
Unstoppable (Tony Scott, 2010)
Young Adult (Jason Reitman, 2011)
Dallas (Stuart Heisler, 1950)
The Tall Target (Anthony Mann, 1951)
The Wedding Night (King Vidor, 1935)
Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)
Cold Weather (Aaron Katz, 2010)
Notorious (George Tillman, Jr., 2009)
The Wolf Man (George Waggner, 1941)
The Paleface (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 1922)
The Devil is a Woman (Josef von Sternberg, 1935)
Union Depot (Alfred E. Green, 1932)
The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011)
British Agent (Michael Curtiz, 1934)
The 3 Rs (David Lynch, 2011)
Haiku (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2009)
Two & Two (Babak Anvari, 2010)
Raffles (George Fitzmaurice, 1930)
The White Meadows (Mohammad Rasoulof, 2009)
The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh, 2009)
The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966)
House Party (Reginald Hudlin, 1990)
Along the Great Divide (Raoul Walsh, 1951)
All Blossoms Again: Pedro Costa, Director (Aurélien Gerbault, 2006)
Knight Without Armor (Jacques Feyder, 1937)
Jumping (Osamu Tezuka, 1984)
Killed (William E. Jones, 2009)
Discrepancy (William E. Jones, 2008-2010)
Tiny Furniture (Lena Dunham, 2010)
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (Oliver Stone, 2010)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (William Greaves, 1968)
Faust (Alexander Sokurov, 2011)
Fun on Mars (Sally Cruikshank, 1971)
Too Big to Fail (Curtis Hanson, 2011)
Cinema Verite (Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, 2011)
Due Date (Todd Phillips, 2010)
Autumnal (Scott Nyerges, 2008)
Film Montages (for Peter Roehr) (William E. Jones, 2006)
Berlin Flash Frames (William E. Jones, 2010)
Punctured (William E. Jones, 2010)
Cop Out (Kevin Smith, 2010)

2010: A Year in Cinema

Films seen for the first time in 2010, or revisited and reconsidered, in rough order of preference:

Late Autumn (Yasujiro Ozu, 1960)
The River (Jean Renoir, 1951)
Toni (Jean Renoir, 1935)
Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1951)
A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, 1936)
The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky, 1999)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
The Naked Prey (Cornel Wilde, 1966)
L'avventura (Michelangelo Antonio, 1960)
Boudu Saved From Drowning (Jean Renoir, 1932)
Zoolander (Ben Stiller, 2001)
Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
Little Boy Male, Little Girl Female (Pedro Costa, 2005)
I Can Feel the Sea Falling Over My Head (Matthew Swiezynski & Diane Granahan, 2010)
The Nightcleaners (Part 1) (Berwick Street Film Collective, 1975)
Ici et ailleurs (Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Anne Miéville, 1976)
Sayat Nova (Sergei Parajanov, 1968)
Role Models (David Wain, 2008)
War Photographer (Christian Frei, 2001)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)
Four Lions (Chris Morris, 2010)
The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, 1992)
Runaway (Kanye West, 2010)
It Is Something Invisible (Matthew Swiezynski, 2010)
Where The Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze, 2009)
I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino, 2009)
Party Girl (Nicholas Ray, 1958)
Rambo: First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 1982)
Black Knight (Gil Junger, 2001)
Treeless Mountain (So Yong Kim, 2008)
Catfish (Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, 2010)
The Meaning of Life (Don Hertzfeldt, 2005)
Framed (Andy DeEmmony, 2009)
The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)
The Most Dangerous Game (Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1932)
City of Life and Death (Lu Chuan, 2009)
L'auberge espagnole (Cédric Klapisch, 2002)

A Year in Cinema, 2009

The best films I saw for the first time in 2009, in rough order of preference:

Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, 2009)
To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955)
Two Lovers (James Gray, 2008)
Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl (Manoel de Oliveira, 2009)
Che (The Argentine and Guerrilla) (Steven Soderbergh, 2008)
Our Daily Bread (King Vidor, 1934)
Inextinguishable Fire (Harun Farocki, 1967)
The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman, 1998)
Canary (Alejandro Adams, 2009)
Summertime (David Lean, 1955)
Itinéraire de Jean Bricard (Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, 2008)
Their Newspapers (Harun Farocki, 1968)
Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel, 2008)
Le Garcu (Maurice Pialat, 1995)
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal (Robert Kramer, 1977)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)
They Live By Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948)
Touched in Head (Jacques Doillon, 1974)
Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, 1968)
Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1933)
Smorgasbord / Cracking Up (Jerry Lewis, 1983)
L'intrus (Claire Denis, 2004)
Um Filme Falado (A Talking Picture) (Manoel de Oliveira, 2003)
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, 2007)
Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Videograms of a Revolution (Harun Farocki, 1992)
Moses and Aaron (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1973)
The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
Ishtar (Elaine May, 1987)
Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso, 2008)
An American Tragedy (Josef von Sternberg, 1931)
Ne change rien (Pedro Costa, 2009)
Prison Images (Harun Farocki, 2000)
Rendez-vous de Juillet (Jacques Becker, 1949)
Dead End (William Wyler, 1937)
The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray, 2009)
The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein (John Gianvito, 2001)
In Comparison (Harun Farocki, 2009)
The Savage Innocents (Nicholas Ray, 1960)
Black Fury (Michael Curtiz, 1935)
Cassandra's Dream (Woody Allen, 2007)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller, 2008)
Images of the World and the Inscription of War (Harun Farocki, 1988)
Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar, 2009)
The Inglorious Bastards (Enzo G. Castellari, 1978)
Respite (Harun Farocki, 2007)
Superbad (Greg Mottola, 2007)
An Image (Harun Farocki, 1983)
Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski, 2009)
El cant dels ocells (Albert Serra, 2008)
American Madness (Frank Capra, 1932)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (David Yates, 2009)
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Red Letter Media, 2009)
Nathalie Granger (Marguerite Duras, 1972)
The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
The Danish Poet (Torill Kove, 2006)
Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (Hara Kazuo, 1974)
Impolex (Alex Ross Perry, 2009)
Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat, 2009)
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist (Peter Sollett, 2008)
Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia (Jose Luis Guerin, 2007)
Cours du soir (Nicolas Ribowski, 1967)
One P.M. (Jean-Luc Godard and D.A. Pennebaker, 1972)
Maneater (Timothy Busfield, 2009)
7 Women (John Ford, 1966)
In The Country (Robert Kramer, 1966)
Let's Get Started (Azazel Jacobs, 2008)
The Whirled (Ken Jacobs, 1956 - 1963 / 2004)
Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, 2006)
Black Legion (Archie Mayo, 1937)
Night Nurse (William A. Wellman, 1931)
Crawford (David Modigliani, 2008)
Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987)
No Greater Glory (Frank Borzage, 1934)
Medicine for Melancholy (Barry Jenkins, 2008)
The Taste of Life (Harun Farocki, 1979)
Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
The Pleasures of the Flesh (Oshima, 1965)
You Won't Miss Me (Ry Russo Young, 2009)
Eros Plus Massacre (Yoshida Yoshishige, 1969)
Three on a Match (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932)
Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine, 2009)
Don't Let Me Drown (Cruz Angeles, 2009)
I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933)

2008: A Year in movies

The best films I saw for the first time in 2008, in rough order of preference.
[My official list of the Top 10 new releases of 2008, with accompanying commentary, is now up at The Auteurs]


Portrait d'une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 à Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1994)
Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)
Je vous salue Sarajevo (Jean-Luc Godard, 1993)
City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
Le Fond de l'Air est Rouge (Chris Marker, 1977/1993)
Céline and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
Andrei Rubylev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969)
Sarabande (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2008)
The Return to Work at the Wonder Factory (Jacques Willemont, 1968)
Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2008)
Cocksucker Blues (Robert Frank, 1972)
In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerin, 2007)
Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)
Mes Petites amoureuses (Jean Eustache, 1974)
Ne Touchez pas la hache (Don’t Touch the Axe, Jacques Rivette, 2007)
Éloge de l'amour (Jean-Luc Godard, 2001)
The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949)
French Can Can (Jean Renoir, 1954)
WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)
Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter, 1986)
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) / Dancing (Matt Harding, 2008)
U.S. Go Home (Claire Denis, 1994)
Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (John Gianvito, 2007)
Bush's War (Michael Kirk, 2008)
The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)
J'entends plus la guitare (Philippe Garrel, 1991)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007)
Still Life (Jia Zhang-Ke, 2006)
Une catastrophe (Jean-Luc Godard, 2008)
Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo, 2006)
Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943)
Far From Vietnam (Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais and Agnes Varda, 1967)
Le Gai Savoir (Jean-Luc Godard, 1969)
The House is Black (Forough Farrokhzad, 1963)
Knocked Up (Judd Apatow, 2007)
The Avenging Conscience: or 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' (D. W. Griffith, 1914)
How Merrily I Shall Laugh. Daniele Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub and Their Film "Class Relations" (Manfred Blank, 1984)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007)
Not Reconciled or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1965)
Charlie Wilson's War (Mike Nichols, 2007)
Synechdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
Ryan's Daughter (David Lean, 1970)
Music video for "Bright Tomorrow" by Fuck Buttons. (Andrew Hung, 2007)
Chrisopher Columbus, The Enigma (Manoel de Oliveira, 2007)
Too Early, Too Late (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1981)
Class Relations (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1984)
Un film comme les autres (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968)
Picnic on the Grass (Jean Renoir, 1960)
Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)
Report (Bruce Connor, 1967)
High School (Frederick Wiseman, 1968)
Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, 2007)
A Movie (Bruce Connor, 1958)
"Aliens in a Spaceship" episode of television show Bones (2006)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, 2008)
The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1968)
RR (James Benning, 2008)
Mary (Abel Ferrara, 2005)
Vagabond (Agnes Varda, 1985)
Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)
Le Premier venu (Just Anybody, Jacques Doillon, 2008)
Breakaway (Bruce Connor, 1966)
Winter (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2008)
Stella Dallas (King Vidor, 1937)
The Dark Room (Marie-Christine Questerbert, 2000)
Hatari! (Howard Hawks, 1962)
A Politician's Love Story (D. W. Griffith, 1909)
The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
Le petit theatre de Jean Renoir (Jean Renoir, 1970)
Mother of Tears (Dario Argento, 2008)
Red Line 7000 (Howard Hawks, 1965)
Zidane, a 21st Century Portrait (Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, 2006)

JLT/JLT Year in Review

Josh and Teresa at JLT/JLT are hosting their First (Hopefully) Annual Year in Review discussion on the year in movies, music and everything else. I'll be one of the participants, as will a number of other writers and critics whose work I admire; it's definitely worth checking out. Running all week at JLT/JLT.

Update: Here's Part 1, and here's Part 2